Editor's Report

‘Full of Grace’ at the Sheen Center

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It had been a while since I had been to the Archbishop Sheen Center for Thought and Culture on Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan. Sure enough, I was there when Cardinal Dolan dedicated the center in September 2014 and then again last spring for a film screening.

So I was happy to accept an invitation from David DiCerto, the center’s director of film, television and mission outreach, to attend last week’s exclusive New York screening of “Full of Grace: The Story of Mary the Mother of Jesus.”

A post-screening discussion, billed as “Toward a New Christian Cinema,” involving the film’s writer and director, Andrew Hyatt; producer T.J. Berden; and actress Bahai Hafai, who portrayed Mary in the recently released film by Outside da Box, only added to my desire to attend.

When I arrived about 10 minutes before the Jan. 14 program began, it was nice to see a mostly young crowd already filling the first level of the Loretto theater, where the screening was held. After exchanging a friendly hello with William Spencer O’Reilly, the center’s executive director, I found a seat in the balcony. As the house lights dimmed, I worried about the prospect of taking notes during the film and whether I would be able to read my scribbled handwriting afterward. Now I know what film critics must go through.

Hyatt’s remarks immediately preceding the screening set a great tone for the evening. He noted that Americans traditionally see films as a place where they can check their lives at the door to the cinema and simply be entertained for two hours. “Full of Grace,” he said, was very definitely not that kind of film.

Instead, he asked the audience “to bring all of your baggage, fears, doubts and struggles” as they viewed the film, and be open to the possibility that God might have something in store for them as they watched.

The filmmakers cleverly have figured out a way to quell any anxieties that viewers bring into the movie within the film’s first minutes.

A synopsis of the plot provided in the program for the evening noted that the film was set in Jerusalem 10 years after the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus as Mary lives out her final earthly days and contemplates the incredible mystery of her life.

Peter arrives at her home after 10 years of traveling, preaching and fleeing from death. He feels an overwhelming responsibility and helplessness in his great task of leading the Church. The days he spent with Mary, in which they recount what happened in both of their lives because of their relationship with Jesus, help him to slowly discover that he is not leading the Church but following what Jesus started.

All that makes for a weighty subject for a film, and illuminates a story that is not as well known as some others in the Christian consciousness.

The discussion afterward, moderated by Dominican Father Peter John Cameron, the artistic director of Blackfriars Repertory Theatre and chairman of the department of homiletics at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, was a serious and thoughtful one, tinged with faith and bits of humor.

As I listened to the questions and appraisals from Father Cameron and audience members, I had the distinct feeling the center was fulfilling its mission very well that night.

As Ms. Haifi discussed her approach to portraying Mary, it was clear she understood this was a role like no other. “You pray every day you are not distorting anything,” she said.

I also got a big charge out of a line that she repeated from when she told a friend about “booking” the part of Mary.

“No, darling,” her friend said. “You don’t book Mary, she books you.”

We intend to keep up with happenings at the Sheen Center, in our listings and from time to time in columns and feature stories. I hope you’ll join us in supporting its programming. I think you’ll like what you see.